Criminal
by N.V.9
Summary: On a road that goes two ways, Sasuke chose to follow his heart. COMPLETE


**Look toward profile/bio for disclaimer and anything else involving this story. **

In the middle of an open field, laying on the hood of a broken down car, rested two bodies. One broad and tan, the other pale and slim. Both lost to the world as the pale raven watched the night with his head resting on the beautiful blonde's chest. The world was quiet and peaceful, as if they were the last two alive.

"Sasuke?"

"Hm?" came the lazy reply.

"Why me?"

With those two words, Sasuke lifted his head from Naruto's chest and turned his gaze to meet the deep blue he had come to love beyond anything else. How was it possible that Naruto and he were meant to be together?

Naruto was from the wrong side of the tracks. A street kid with no real future or goal. A boy with no place in mind to live forever. Naruto never stayed in one place to long. Always moving and searching for something that even he wasn't sure of. When asked where he would go, his answer would always be 'wherever I end up'. In and out of jail and always on the run. Naruto was the last person Sasuke would have thought he would have fallen for.

Naruto was probably thinking the same thing about him. His world was a lot different from the blonde. Born with a silver spoon and a plan set before he took his first breath. Sasuke knew what he wanted. He wanted to join his Father's firm. Become a lawyer like every male in his family. Have a wife and two kids. He knew where he was going to live and every other detail, of every single day for the rest of his life. Sasuke had a plan. Never once had he been in trouble with the law or gone against the rules of society.

Both he and Naruto were complete opposites from the way they lived to the way they survived.

The day they met was purely by chance. He had been running an errand, for his brother Itachi, when he had taken a wrong turn and ended up lost in the city. When the perfection of the city began to turn to broken windows and boarded up doors, Sasuke had freaked. With no way to turn around and no street leading toward the way he had come, the then seventeen year old had slowly began to panic. The car he was in, standing out as hoodlums gathered on the streets. All of them watching him with hungry stares and greedy eyes.

He had tried to speed passed them, to leave, but they all began filling the streets. Stopping him as they grew closer and closer. Before any could touch the car, a blonde had appeared. A gun in hand as a shot-gun rested lazidly over his shoulder. Cuts and bandages lined his bare chest as the jeans he wore, rode low around his waist. With a cigarette in his mouth, he lifted the hand gun toward the crowd and smirked. Before Sasuke could understand what was going on, he had pulled the trigger, shooting a man in the leg and scattering the rest.

Unable to move, Sasuke had watched in stunned silence as he made his way toward the drivers side and with a wave of his gun, he forced Sasuke to open the door.

'Move over' was the first words Sasuke had heard him say. Quickly unbuckling his seatbelt, he slid over to the passengers side as the blonde took his place. Placing the shot-gun by Sasuke's leg and the other in his own lap, he hit the gas and took off.

For the whole ride, Sasuke had watched him, unseeing of where they were going until they pulled over.

'Are you going to kill me?' Sasuke had asked when the blonde had parked the car in an ally.

'No'. Without another word, the blonde grabbed his stuff and opened the door.

It was then, to Sasuke's surprise, that he reached out and stopped the blonde from leaving. 'I'm Sasuke, Sasuke Uchiha.'

'Naruto,' the blonde said turning to meet his gaze. 'If you're smart, this will be the end of our connection in life.'

'I...I want to thank you.' Sasuke said when the blonde continued to stare at him.

'Then thank me by not going back there. I only save idiots once.' Naruto smirked and got out. Sasuk watched him disappear around the corner. When he moved to go back to his seat, he blinked at the shot-gun lying innocently against the door frame. Unable to leave it, he found himself putting it in the trunk and taking off.

Days later, the blonde had found him. He was sitting outside a small cafe when a shadow fell over him.

'You have something of mine,' Naruto had said as he sat down opposite of him. His black leather jacket seeming so at odds with the nice day.

'I don't know what you're talking about,' Sasuke had replied with a small smirk. 'Refresh my mind of this 'thing'.'

'Do you really want to play this game?' Naruto had asked with a raised brow.

'Perhaps.' Sasuke shrugged as he sipped at his coffee and closed his book. 'Do you want anything?'

'My stuff.'

'Besides that. Coffee? Muffin? Cookie?'

'No,'

'I'm offering-'

'And I don't need your charity.' Naruto had growled. 'Just give me what's mine and I'll go away.'

Shockingly, he found himself replying, 'Maybe I don't want you to go away.'

At that, Naruto had laughed, the scars on his face crinkling with his smile. 'I'm the last guy you want around.'

'Why?'

'I'm no good on anyone's heart,' Naruto had stated.

'I'm not offering mine.' Sasuke whispered, meeting Naruto's watchful eyes. Finally the blonde stood and turned away. Unsure of what was going on, Sasuke watched him walk off.

'Are you coming?'

Who knew those three words would seal his fate?

For months, he would secretly meet up with the blonde. They'd meet in random places that Naruto would call from and go from there. In three months, Sasuke had been to five different places that Naruto called home for a brief short weeks.

His family knew nothing of the blonde. They knew nothing of where Sasuke went, each of them believing when he said he was studying at the library or at a friends.

He wasn't sure when it happened, but one day as he was resting in Naruto's arms, he knew he loved the blonde. Naruto didn't expect anything from him. He didn't demand the world of him or a certain imagine. He let Sasuke decide what they were going to do. He didn't lie or make up stories to win favor with him. Naruto didn't hide his lifestyle. He didn't lie when he said he'd gotten picked up and so couldn't meet with him for a few days. He didn't care if Sasuke saw him drunk. He didn't make up stories about a new bruise or a new wound. He didn't force Sasuke to accpet his lifestyle or demand to be let into Sasuke's. He never raised his voice or a hand toward him. He treated him better then Sasuke had ever been treated in his life. In the short three months that they had been together, Sasuke knew Naruto was fateful to him. The only thing Sasuke could say Naruto had done was ask him not to fall in love with him and in turn, Sasuke had fallen hard.

He never told Naruto he loved him. How do you tell a guy, two years older, that the one thing he was told not to do, he did? He only hoped Naruto felt the same way.

And maybe that was what lead to the biggest change of Sasuke's life. Only a week after he discovered how he felt, Naruto had asked to meet up with him. That night Sasuke had sneaked out of his home. The next thing the blonde had said broke his heart, 'I gotta go Sasuke, they're coming for me.'

'Go? Who's coming?'

'Who isn't coming?' Naruto had smirked and leaned down to kiss him on the lips. 'I'm leaving tomorrow night.'

'Why are you telling me this?' Sasuke remembered saying as he tried hard not to cry. He had remembered thinking: What would have been worse, Naruto leaving and not telling him or this?

'Because,' Naruto said softly as he pulled the stiff raven closer, 'I want you to come with me.'

'Wh-what?'

'Come with me,' Naruto whispered resting his forehead against his, 'Will you?'

Sasuke wasn't sure how to respond. He could leave and always be on the run with Naruto or he could forget about the guy that could be 'the one' and live his life like he did before Naruto had come into it.

He must have taken forever to answer as Naruto pulled back and nodded. 'If you decide to come, I'll be here until six. If not, I understand.' with those parting words, the blonde turned and walked away.

Going home, Sasuke remembered sitting in the darkness of his room, looking out the window long into the morning. When his brother sat beside him, he turned.

'Are you alright?' he remembered Itachi asking.

'I'm at a crossroad,' Sasuke had answered. 'I don't know what road to take. I want to go left, and stay on the path that has been created for me, but I want to go right, into unknown territory.'

'What's on the right road?' Itachi asked.

'My future.' Sasuke whispered.

'Take the path your heart leads you on,' Itachi said sometime later. 'If you give it up for the other, you'll regret it.'

At that moment, Sasuke saw his brother spoke from experiance. That his brother had came to the same fork and chosen the wrong road.

'Don't make the same mistake I did.' Itachi had said pulling him into a half hug, 'Don't be like me.' with a kiss on his forehead, Itachi was gone.

When the sun rose at its highest and began to set, Sasuke had still been undecided. Moving to the closet, he pulled out a long box and opened it. The shot-gun that had first kept Naruto in his life resting within. Only when he ran a hand down the barrow, did he know what he would do.

Hours later, after packing a bag and writing a letter to be found by either his brother or the maid, he went to his car and took off. He found Naruto right where he said he'd be. He watched as Naruto checked the clock on his phone, only to put it away and reach down for the bag at his feet and walk off.

'Need a lift?' Sasuke had asked, pulling beside the blonde and rolling down his window.

'You came,' Naruto had sounded so surprised, even looked beyond shocked at seeing him.

'Of course,' Sasuke smirked, 'If my memory serves, I still have something of yours that I have yet to give back.'

'So you've come to give it back?'

'No,' Sasuke shook his head at Naruto's blank expression. 'I still don't know what it is I have of yours that you want back.' he joked.

'Are you sure about this?' Naruto had asked seriously, 'I don't want you to regret this later.'

'I'm positive,' Sasuke smiled as he popped the trunk and moved to the passengers side.

With a smile in turn, Naruto tossed his bag in the trunk and got in. Leaning over to kiss him, he pulled back slowly, 'Let's go.'

That was a year ago today. A year that he had never regreted. In that time, he and Naruto had dumped his car and gotten another. Always traveling and on the road, hiding from everyone. He had no idea about his mother or father, beyond what Itachi told him. But he didn't mind.

He had spoken to Itachi twice, telling him it wasn't too late to take the other path. Cars did make 'U' turns all the time. Itachi had said he would think about it. That was the second and last time he had spoken to him. Where he was at now, Sasuke would never know.

"Sasuke?" Naruto said bringing him out of his thoughts.

"Because," Sasuke smiled as he leaned up and kissed him slowly, "Apparently I've fallen hard for a criminal."

Chuckling, Naruto pulled him back for a kiss, "Thank god you still refuse to give me back what's mine."

"The shot-gun?" Sasuke teased.

"No," Naruto whispered, "My heart."

X~x~X

A thousand miles away, a car pulled into a parking lot. Opening his door, a man slid out of the pick-up truck and walked toward the little cafe. With a push from his fingers, the door opened causing a bell to jingle.

"Be right with you," the slim male said from the otherside of the counter as he made another pot of coffee. "What can I get for-" The blonde started with a smile ready, only to blink in shock at who had come in. "It-Itachi?" he gasped with a hand over his mouth, his eyes filling with tears.

"Hello Deidara," Itachi smiled gently, "I'm sorry it took me so long."


End file.
